Last week in Kigali, ALX, Anthropic, and the Government of Rwanda launched one of Africa’s most ambitious AI-for-education initiatives to date, introducing “Chidi,” an AI-powered learning companion built on Anthropic’s Claude model. Chidi is already reshaping how students and teachers learn, plan lessons, and build critical thinking skills.In just the first 48 hours of Phase 1, ALX learners logged more than 1,100 conversations and 4,000 chats, revealing early evidence of real engagement and curiosity among young African talent.
Now, Phase 2 is expanding the pilot to Rwanda’s public education system, equipping up to 2,000 educators and civil servants with hands-on training in generative AI tools like Claude — with the goal of scaling AI literacy, supporting teacher workflows, and informing national policy.
Anthropic EduTimes Africa Q&A – Drew Bent
What problem were you trying to solve when developing Chidi, and why launch this partnership now?
The ALX x Anthropic partnership was created to address a clear challenge: Africa has a rapidly growing young population navigating limited access to high-quality learning resources. Chidi is designed to close that gap by giving every learner access to a Socratic, AI-powered tutor that builds critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and foundational AI fluency. This moment is critical for Africa’s youth; it can gain a global competitive advantage not as recipients of technology, but as creators and innovators shaping the next wave of AI-enabled solutions.
How does Chidi’s inquiry-based approach change the learning experience for students and teachers?
Chidi guides learners through questions instead of providing direct answers. This helps students strengthen reasoning skills and understand underlying concepts, rather than memorizing solutions. For teachers, Chidi becomes a partner in lesson planning and feedback, freeing up time while supporting more interactive, curiosity-driven classrooms. It shifts learning from passive consumption to deeper engagement and exploration.
What did early engagement from the rollout reveal about how learners are using the tool?
Early pilots showed strong adoption, with thousands of interactions recorded within days. Learners are using Chidi across subjects; from coding to math to project feedback and engaging with it repeatedly, which signals both curiosity and trust. The volume and diversity of questions suggest that students see Chidi as a reliable guide for working through challenges, not a shortcut for getting quick answers.
What skills or shifts do you expect this program to unlock for teachers as part of Rwanda’s Phase 2 pilot?
Phase 2 includes AI training for up to 2,000 Rwandan educators and civil servants. This will help teachers build practical AI literacy, streamline lesson preparation, provide more personalized student feedback, and integrate digital tools into daily instruction. The program aligns with Rwanda’s Vision 2050 goals by strengthening teaching quality, digital capability, and overall readiness for a modern, knowledge-based economy.
What safeguards were put in place to ensure Chidi is safe, responsible, and appropriate for younger users?
Anthropic designs Claude and tools like Chidi, with safety at the core. We follow strict data privacy and security standards, including GDPR-aligned data retention, encryption, and user rights protections. These measures help ensure that Chidi supports learning without compromising student safety or integrity.
There’s global debate about AI in classrooms. What do you think people misunderstand about using AI in education?
A common misconception is that AI will replace teachers or give students unfair shortcuts. Chidi is intentionally designed to do the opposite. Its inquiry-driven style supports deeper understanding instead of offering quick answers, and it reinforces, rather than replaces the teacher’s role. AI, when deployed responsibly, strengthens human-led learning and expands access to high-quality guidance for students who might not otherwise receive it.
This partnership includes a working group to inform Rwanda’s national AI policy. From your perspective, what does effective AI policy for education look like?
Effective AI policy prioritizes safety, transparency, student privacy, and equitable access. It supports teachers with tools that enhance and not burden their workflows, and it ensures young people gain real digital skills that map to future jobs. Rwanda’s Vision 2050 already emphasizes responsible innovation and human capital development, and this partnership helps operationalize those principles inside real classrooms and government systems.
Looking ahead, what could this pilot mean for other countries exploring AI for learning?
This pilot can serve as a model for how governments, educators, and AI developers can work together to responsibly scale AI in education. As we expand across Africa, the goal is to make AI-powered learning a continental standard where talent, not geography, determines opportunity. ALX brings scale, Rwanda brings policy leadership, and Anthropic brings technology, creating a blueprint that other nations can adapt for their own contexts.
EduTimes Africa, a product of Education Times Africa, is a magazine publication that aims to lend its support to close the yawning gap in Africa's educational development.
